Leave Out All The Rest
by Zie Ayton
Summary: Sequel to "One Step Closer". After the crash, Bakura was rushed to the hospital. Ryou stands beside him, begging him to hold on. Will the boy's hope be enough to save Bakura, or will he live on only as a memory?


_**Leave Out All The Rest**_

There were voices all around him.

"…sitting far too close to the steering wheel…"

"…car flipped over the guardrail…"

"…a concussion, a shattered ribcage, and a punctured lung…"

One voice rang more clearly in his mind. "He'll be okay, though?"

_Ryou_, Bakura thought.

"You really need to get out of here, kid. I don't even know how you got in, but I do know that you _must_ get out."

"I'm not leaving him alone!… Let go of me! I'm not leaving!"

_I dreamed I was missing  
__You were so scared  
__But no one would listen  
_'_Cause no one else cared  
__After my dreaming  
__I woke with this fear  
__What am I leaving  
__When I'm done here_

Slowly, Bakura's eyes opened. "Let…let him stay. Please."

Fading in through black, he saw Ryou wrench away from the nurses and run over to his bedside. The boy took his hand. "You're awake! You're alive!"

"So I wrecked, huh? How fast was I going?"

"They said that judging from the force of the impact, about two hundred."

A slight smile broke his face. "I knew that car could go fast." Everything was coming back to him now: the fury, the tears, his fists on the dash. Everything he'd said. "Ryou, I…I'm sorry."

"For what?"

_So if you're asking me  
__I want you to know_

_When my time comes  
__Forget the wrong that I've done  
__Help me leave behind some  
__Reasons to be missed  
__Don't resent me  
__And when you're feeling empty  
__Keep me in your memory  
__Leave out all the rest  
__Leave out all the rest_

"For yelling. For coming so close to hurting _you_." He shot a glare at the nurses standing to the side. "Don't even think about it. He's not going anywhere." He looked back at the boy. "I'm sorry."

"No, Bakura. _I'm_ sorry. For not realizing how much it hurt you to see me with him. It should have been obvious. I'd noticed the glares, the efforts you made to be pleasant. I just didn't give them any thought. I convinced myself that it was nothing that I needed to worry about." His hold on Bakura's hand tightened. "I'm just glad you're here for me to apologize."

Bakura reached up with his other hand and stroked Ryou's hair. "Thank you." He let his arm drop back to the bed. "I…I know you probably already pieced it together from my rant, but I want to explain myself with less subtext. Ryou, I've been jealous, from the moment you came running through the front door with that beautiful smile of yours—"

Here, a blush rose to Ryou's cheeks.

"—and told me Marik had asked you out. That was when I really started to feel like I needed to protect you. I searched for all the bad in Marik, and I think that's what actually brought it out of him. I tried to wear a mask, to let you think that I was happy for you—well, I was, but I also felt a deep resentment. But Marik caught me when that mask was off, whenever he'd kiss you good-bye or hold you close to him. He saw the hurt, the envy, and played off of it." He stopped. "I shouldn't be telling you this."

"You should. I want to know _why_ you were driving two hundred kilometers per hour. Even if it means saying some things I probably don't want to hear. Go on," he urged.

Bakura sighed. "It's just that…I wanted so badly to be the one beside you, to be the one you let stroke your hair, to be the one who made you smile just by being with you. Marik had everything I wanted. And today—"

"Yesterday," Ryou corrected.

"Oh. Well, _yesterday_, he just wouldn't let go of you, even when you asked." He looked directly into the boy's eyes. "Doesn't this make you uncomfortable at all?"

"What?"

"Standing there, holding my hand while I admit everything that's been going through my mind for the past few months." Bakura gave a weak laugh. "It seems like it would be an awkward situation for you. By the way, how was the concert?"

"The—? Bakura, we didn't go. You crashed less than five minutes after you dropped us off. We've been here for the past fourteen hours. Marik's in the waiting room, and I managed to sneak in here. We've been praying you'd make it through. It looks like there's _some_ higher power smiling down on us."

"Indeed." Bakura tried to sit up, only to meet an excruciating pain run through his chest. "Ah!" he gasped.

"Bakura!"

_Don't be afraid  
__I've taken my beating  
__I've shed but I'm me  
__I'm strong on the surface  
__Not all the way through  
__I've never been perfect  
__But neither have you_

He dropped back down. "I'm…fine…I'll be…just fine."

Tears welled in Ryou's eyes.

"Don't…cry…_please_ don't cry. I…I'm okay. Really." He reached up again, this time wiping away the tears that had already fallen. "Remember my promise? Right before I left?"

Ryou nodded slightly.

"I'm not going anywhere, Ryou. I'll always be here for you. I won't die. It'll hurt for a while, sure, but I'll get better. I promise."

The boy leaned his head against Bakura's outstretched hand. "Don't say that. I'll believe you."

"Why shouldn't you?"

He averted his eyes. "Because they've been talking about you for a long time. Everything that happened…it's a wonder you have two working arms. It's a miracle that you're alive. You were still sitting up against the steering wheel. You didn't have any room to slow down before you hit it."

"What about my airbags?"

"They never ejected. That car was a deathtrap: the airbags weren't properly installed, the seatbelts apparently had very untrustworthy clips, and it was made of ridiculously thin metal. In case you were wondering, yes, it's totaled."

"I liked that car. When you leave, could you apologize to Marik for me?"

"When I _what_? I'm not leaving until you do."

Bakura blinked. "I…thank you, Ryou. But you really shouldn't stay here. It could be a long time. You have school."

"Someone can bring me my homework."

"What about food?"

"Marik will figure out where we are soon enough."

He withdrew his hand from Ryou's face. "Then I'd better not make him mad."

"He won't be!"

_So if you're asking me  
__I want you to know_

_When my time comes  
__Forget the wrong that I've done  
__Help me leave behind some  
__Reasons to be missed  
__Don't resent me  
__And when you're feeling empty  
__Keep me in your memory  
__Leave out all the rest  
__Leave out all the rest_

A smile spread across Bakura's face. "You want to believe that. Let's not risk it. I want him to know that I didn't mean to hurt him."

"Just a minute ago you were saying how much you hated how he acted."

"Yes, well, I've had a change of heart. If, by chance, something _were_ to happen to me, I want to die knowing he doesn't hate me. _Change of Heart_…" Bakura remembered the first time Ryou had seen him, in that duel between him and Yugi. The boy had been the _Change of Heart_, and saved everyone by disobeying him. Once again, he was defying authority to try to save a life.

_Forgetting all the hurt inside  
__You've learned to hide so well  
__Pretending someone else can come  
__And save me from myself  
__I can't be who you are_

Bakura's head hurt. What had the doctors said earlier? _"…a concussion…"_ There was no point in worrying Ryou about it. The kid's eyes were filled with concern mixed with a spark of hope. Best not to put out that fire just as it began to burn. As long as Ryou had hope, Bakura could believe that maybe, by another miracle, he would pull through. But the headache was getting worse. It was finally too much to bear in silence. "Ow…" he moaned.

"Bakura? What is it?"

He groaned again. "My head. It hurts like hell."

A passing nurse stopped and looked in the door. "What was that?"

"Nothing," he muttered.

The nurse continued by with a suspicious expression.

"Ryou, _please_ tell Marik that I'm sorry."

"I won't need to! You'll be able to when he comes in. It won't be long! And we'll both get you through this! You're going to be fine!"

The pain in his chest returned with twice the sting. "Tell him…"

_When my time comes  
__Forget the wrong that I've done  
__Help me leave behind some  
__Reasons to be missed  
__Don't resent me  
__And when you're feeling empty  
__Keep me in your memory  
__Leave out all the rest  
__Leave out all the rest_

"Ryou, I…I love you, kid. Remember that."

"No! Stay! Don't leave me! I'm sorry! I was too afraid! I couldn't admit it myself! _I_ love _you_!"

At that moment, the nurse came running in with a doctor behind him. "This one."

Bakura's eyelids were starting to feel very heavy. "I know you do," he whispered as he allowed his eyes to close. The hand Ryou held went limp. Everything around him was fading again, but now out.

"Get that kid out of here!" came the muffled voice of the nurse.

"NO! LET ME STAY! HE'S NOT GOING TO DIE! HE _PROMISED_! LET GO, _DAMN IT_!"

Bakura could feel a faint grin cross his face at Ryou's curse. He opened his eyes one last time to look at the beautiful face, tainted by terror and agony, before letting go and approaching his light.

_Forgetting all the hurt inside  
You've learned to hide so well  
Pretending someone else can come  
And save me from myself  
I can't be who you are  
I can't be who you are_

_

* * *

_

That's the second installment to my Linkin Park series. (Told ya it'd be up soon!) Next to come, maybe not until tomorrow. Thanks in advance for reviewing!


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